Quick Facts
LibraBiography
Anne Ranasinghe (born Anneliese Katz; 2 October 1925 – 17 December 2016) was a Jewish-German born Sri Lankan English language poet. She is considered as one of Sri Lanka's leading poet in English, having won several international awards.
Early life
Anneliese Katz was born in 2 October 1925 in Essen, Germany, to a Jewish family. A victim of Nazi Germany's atrocities against Jews, she witnessed the Kristallnacht (night of broken glass), the burning of the Essen synagogue. In 1939, her parents sent her to England to an aunt she had never seen before. Within a week she was sent to aschool 140 miles away to live among strangers and to learn English, a new language to her. Within six months World War II broke out and much later she would learn that her parents had been murdered by the Nazis.
Anne completed her studies at Parkstone Grammar School and trained to become a nursing sister at Charing Cross Hospital, King's College, Moorfields, Chelsea and Burden Neurological Institute.
Literary work
Ranasinghe began her writing career in the late 1960s after obtaining a Diploma in Journalism from Colombo Technical College. In 1971, she published her first poem collection, And the Sun That Sucks The Earth to Dry. Some of Ranasinghe's well known poems include July 1983, Plead Mercy (1974), A Long Hot Day and At What Dark Point (1970). She has published 12 books and have been translated into several languages in seven countries.
From 1975, Ranasinghe worked for the Amnesty International's South Asian Publications Service in Sri Lanka.
Recognition
Ranasinghe was awarded Sri Lanka Arts Council Prize for Poetry in 1985 and again in 1992 and also for non-fiction in 1987. She won the Sri Lankan State Literary Award for best collection of short stories in 1994. Also she has been awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the nation's only federal civilian award.
Personal life
In 1949, Anne married D. A. Ranasinghe, a post-graduate student who would later become a lecturer and professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Colombo Medical School, and moved to Sri Lanka. She has seven children, four of her own and three from her husband's previous marriage. Her own four children are sons Ananda and Nihal, and daughters Shanthi and Renuka, and all of them live abroad.
Death and legacy
Anne Ranasinghe died 17 December 2016 in her Colombo residence in Rosmead Place, at age of 91. Sri Lankan school children study her poems for their English literature course work in GCE Ordinary Level.